


Inked Wrists

by The_Omni_Princess



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Everyone lives in the tower!AU, F/M, Fluff, Mild Language, Minor Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, basically Tony forgives Bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 20:33:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20432027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Omni_Princess/pseuds/The_Omni_Princess
Summary: In a world where the first words spoken to you by your soulmate are written on your wrist, what are you supposed to do when yours simply says “hey?”-





	Inked Wrists

**Author's Note:**

> This is for @buckygrantbarnes (on Tumblr) ‘s writing challenge!!   
#buckygrantbarneswritingchallenge  
-  
Enjoy!

In a world where everyone has a soulmate, everyone choses their first words to strangers very carefully. On the inside of a person’s wrist was their soulmate’s first words to them in their soulmate’s handwriting, signed with their initials. In your case, the initials were more helpful than the words. Plenty of people had complicated sentences, which made it easy to figure out who their soulmate was. You, however, were cursed with an absolutely stupid “Hey” in cursive, signed with the initials J.B.B. You were entirely dependent on your soulmate’s reaction to your first words, since it was too much of a hassle to ask every single stranger who said ‘Hey’ to you if they had your initials written on their wrist. Most of your friends pitied you, since a large majority of them had unique first words, and sub sequentially, had already found their perfect halves.

The isolation from being one of the few people your age who hadn’t found their soulmates by now irked you, so you moved to New York, and joined SHIELD as a computer analyst under Tony Stark himself. He said he hired you because of your knowledge of any technological system, but you knew it was because of your ability to hack just about anything.

Now, a few months into this new job, you sat in the lab next to Bruce and Tony. They both quickly became father figures towards you, teasing and protective. With most of your family miles away, you certainly didn’t mind. You met the Avengers a few times, but most of them only really came to your lab if they had some system acting up, though they all treated you like a valuable member of the team. Though out of all of them, the only one who you hadn’t said a single word to, nor spoke to you, was Bucky Barnes. You had to admit he was hot, cute at the very least. Though him, Steve, and Tony had reconciled, and Bucky was living in the tower with the rest of the Avengers, Bucky mostly kept to himself.

Though what intrigued the most about the mysterious former assassin was his metal arm. The cybernetic limb, given to him by T’Challa as an apology for trying to kill him, was a feat of technological heaven. You would do practically anything to study it, but the super soldier avoided your lab like the plague, though given his experience with people in white coats you couldn’t really blame him.

Tony waved a hand in front of your face, “Hello? Earth to y/n? We’ve got a system to hack?”

You came back to your senses, “Yeah, yeah, I’ve got it.” You quickly went to work breaking past the firewall to access the files hidden in the thumb drive swiped by the Avengers on their latest mission to an abandoned Hydra Facility. It took you minutes to bring up everything, “Done! FRIDAY, can you please sort through these files? Tell me if you find anything interesting please.”

“Certainly, Agent Y/l/n,” the AI responded, making you smile faintly.

“Thanks Fri, you’re the best.” You then turned your attention to Tony and Bruce. “Anything else on this lovely Friday evening? Or did you doubt my abilities and think that would take longer?” you teased, both men smiling towards you proudly.

“That’s it work wise, kid. Actually though, it’s movie night, care to join?” Tony was sorting through the files already organized by FRIDAY as he spoke.

“I have nothing better to do so sure. What’s the movie?” You grinned.

“Some Disney movie, the oldies are still catching up on pop culture, Scott insisted they had to binge Disney and Pixar films.”

“Ah, I see he’s a man of taste then,” you were already taking your lab coat off. “Well, I’ll head to my room to change then.” You stretched your back as you spoke, your legs and spine cramped from sitting for too long.

“Sure, see you soon, kiddo,” Tony called out as you left.

-

A few hour later you were in comfy pajamas, a fluff blanket wrapped around your shoulders. You walked into the communal living room, the lights dimmed but still on as most of the Avengers were sitting on couches waiting for Sam, Steve, and Bucky to arrive. You sat next to Natasha, one of the few Avengers you’ve already gotten pretty close to. “Glad you could finally join a movie night y/n.” The redhead smiled at you, letting you grab a handful of popcorn from the bowl she had on her lap, her hand movement allowed you to glance at her own soul mark. She let you see it once, scribbly writing that said ‘I don’t want to hurt you’ signed with the initials CFB. You found it pretty cute how her soulmate, Clint, was the one to pull her out of the assassin life.

“Glad I’m finally join in,” you grinned, happy to have the team opening up with you. Only Natasha and Tony knew of your not very helpful soulmate mark, both a bit too nosy for their own goods. Tony’s was also an easy one, his mark was “Will that be all Mr. Stark?” with the initials VP. It took him a week before he found out Pepper’s first name was actually Virginia and his soulmate had been taking care of his schedules unknowingly for months.

You heard Steve, and Sam coming into the room before you saw them walking in with an unamused looking Bucky. “All I’m saying, is that if your arm popped off it would be the perfect boomerang!” Sam was excitedly saying, the three clearly in the middle of some long argument.

“It’s an arm, it’s barley curved like a boomerang, it wouldn’t swing back around!” Steve countered, most of the lounging Avengers now paying attention to the loud conversation.

Sam, another person you’ve grown pretty close to since you started working with the Avengers since neither of you had met your soulmates yet, quickly turned to you. “Y/n! Perfect! You’re the tech genius and you’ve studied the scamatics of Tinman’s arm. What ya think? Would it be a good boomerang?”

“Hey!” Bucky warned softly, not wanting to get others involved in Sam’s schemes.

All eyes turned to you, but you simply shrugged. “All I’m saying is that if you throw your arm, I’d be more worried about the concussion it would give, not if it’s coming back.” You meant the comment as a joke, used to Sam’s antics, but he, Steve, and Bucky all went pale. You looked over at them in confusion, “What? The metal would probably hurt, or the plating get stuck on something long before it swings back around.” The room was quiet, the other Avengers confused as to why the three soldiers looked like they had seen a ghost.

Steve was the one who spoke up, “Y/n, what are your initials?” He asked softly, glancing towards Bucky, whose blue eyes were wide, locked onto you.

Confusion was written all over your face as you said you initials out loud. Sam suddenly laughed, “No way! And you were finding every excuse to not head to that lab like an idiot, Tinman!”

It suddenly dawned on you why anyone would ever ask you for your initials. You stood, your blanket falling off of your shoulder as you took a step towards the three men, your eyes locked onto Bucky. “J.B.B.” you whispered. “James Buchanan Barnes.” The realization hit you hard, that, if you were to trust the context clues, the man in front of you was your soulmate. You pushed your pajama sleeve up off of your wrist. “I’ve had a stupid ‘hey’ written on here forever with those initials.”

Bucky took a step forward, already tugging his sleeve up as well, eyes locked onto the words on your own wrist. You both grabbed at the other’s wrist, and sure enough, on Bucky’s right wrist were the words _“All I’m saying is that if you throw your arm, I’d be more worried about the concussion it would give, not if it’s coming back.”_In your cursive handwriting, signed with your initials. You looked up at him, unable to tear yourself away. “I found you.” You whispered softly, your eyes welling up with tears, your heart being tugged towards the man in front of you.

You suddenly grabbed a hold of him in a fierce hug, and he quickly hugged you back, holding onto you for dear life, both of you not caring about the crowd around you. “Oh my god it’s really you.” He mumbled into your neck, you laughed wetly, tears readily flowing down your cheeks. He was quick to wipe them, gently cradling your face in his palms, he was also teary-eyed, looking down at you like you hung the stars. “Fuck, I thought you were born the same time as me, and I would have lost you to the war, and then when they had me Hydra was always looking for someone with these initials. I’d never thought I’d find you, that you’d live out your life without me, but you’re right here.” He laughed, holding onto you even tighter.

“I’m right here, and I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” You teased, clinging onto him.

“So, soulmates, are we going to watch a movie or are you two gonna gaze into each other’s eyes all night,” Tony called out. You turned, suddenly aware everyone was looking at you. Tony was smiling, although he would admit it wouldn’t be his first choice of a soulmate, he knew how badly you wanted to meet yours so he was happy you finally did.

Bucky grinned, gently lacing your hands together. “I think we’re going to move movie night to my room, we have a lot of catching up to do.” He said, his body already pressed against yours protectively. “If you want to of course, doll,” he added quickly, making you giggle.

“I’d love that, soulmate,” you smiled, and the goofy grin you got as a response made your insides melt.

“Well then go!” Sam quickly shoed you both out, the team laughing behind you. “Better treat her right Tinman! Or Tony, Bruce, Nat, and I will kick your ass,” he warned, still smiling at you two.

“Of course,” Bucky quickly said, already leading you to his room. “I’ve waited a hundred years for my soulmate, I’m not gonna mess it up now!” He called out and once Sam and the rest of the team were floors away, and it was just Bucky and you, he pressed you against his door, both of you wearing matching grins. “Now, where were we, soulmate?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
You can find me on Tumblr under the same user, where I have even more writing <3


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